From posting videos on YouTube, more and more people are going towards live streaming, which, in many ways, is a more fun and profitable activity. Streamlabs OBS was created specifically for this purpose. This program is used by all popular streamers, on all major services, including Twitch and YouTube, and for good reason. It places a vast range of controls at your disposal, so you can manipulate even the smallest aspect of your live stream. You can decide what animations appear on the screen when a viewer does something, where certain widgets should be displayed and much more. Furthermore, professional streamers can use this tool to keep track of their activity, earnings and other aspects of their business.

You can't exactly characterize Streamlabs OBS as a lightweight utility. Downloading and installing the software takes a few minutes, though you won't be kept waiting for too long. There are no special tools or services that need to be installed. Furthermore, while the program itself doesn't require too many resources to run, you will need adequate hardware, capable of streaming video.

As previously mentioned, Streamlabs OBS provides you with numerous controls, but it manages to keep them well organized, so you should be able to set up your stream fairly quick, if you spend a few minutes studying the user interface. A dashboard presents a wide range of useful statistics, like donations revenue, subscribers and so on. What's more, the program lets you set up your own payment methods, for tips and donations.

Streamlabs OBS shines the most when it comes to customizing the looks of your stream. You can add individual widgets on a preview of your stream, move and resize them and make a few tweaks if necessary. You can add a tip jar, a chat box, viewer count, webcam feed, an alert box and much more. This way, whenever a viewer subscribes to your channel, makes a donation or performs other actions, an animation will play somewhere, according to your own preferences, to show them your appreciation.

The best part is that the program makes it quite easy to customize a stream. Regardless of what kind of widgets or scenes you want to add on the screen, you will be able to do it with only a few clicks. What's more, OBS comes with a huge number of predefined themes, which you can inspect, tweak and apply on your own stream immediately. They are organized in various categories, so whether you intend to stream a certain type of game, like a shooter or real-time strategy or do a real-life stream, you will certainly find something that suits your needs.

When it comes to live streaming, Streamlabs OBS gives you full control to make the stream look however you want and manage your business in an efficient manner.

Pros: The software gives you complete freedom to customize your live stream however you want. Despite the large number of controls, mastering the program's functionality is not difficult. It lets you stream on all popular services, like Twitch, YouTube and others.